No smoke without ire: Shisha bar crackdown at Rusholme 'Curry Mile' in Manchester

More than 30 of the bars – which provide Middle Eastern hookah pipes for people to smoke tobacco – have opened in a quarter-mile stretch of Wilmslow Road, in Rusholme, over the past three years. Police and council officers also fear some may be flouting the smoking ban or using illicit tobacco. Now they are planning a string of raids and a new voluntary code of conduct.

Shisha bars face a new crackdown over fears they are taking over Manchester’s famed Curry Mile.

More than 30 of the bars – which provide Middle Eastern hookah pipes for people to smoke tobacco – have opened in a quarter-mile stretch of Wilmslow Road, in Rusholme, over the past three years.

Police and council officers also fear some may be flouting the smoking ban or using illicit tobacco.

Now they are planning a string of raids and a new voluntary code of conduct.

Detectives have already swooped on one shisha bar and seized more than £23,000 of counterfeit tobacco. More are planned in coming months.

Shisha bars are legal but are bound by the 2007 smoking ban and can only operate in areas with three sides open for ventilation.

But inspections by council staff and police have found some operating in first-floor premises and rooms with no ventilation.

Sgt Brent Jones said: "A lot have opened in a short space of time. Because it’s happened so quickly, it has been difficult for the authorities to keep up.

"The police have no problem with a shisha bar that is run properly and legally.

"But to comply with the law they must have half the area open to the air – so you can see a lot of them can’t be legal from that point of view.

"These bars are subject to the same legislation as anywhere else but it can take a long time to get them through the courts and closed down if they are found to be breaking the law."

Councillors are drawing up a code of conduct, which will include asking customers for identification, compulsory air conditioning, and keeping receipts for tobacco available for officers to see on request.

Labour’s Rabnawaz Akbar said: "This area is famed for its cuisine – the last thing we want it to be known as is ‘shisha mile’.

"So many shisha bars have opened it’s overwhelming.

"They are cheap to run and extremely profitable – but because they only need a cafe licence it’s been difficult to do anything about in the past.

"Shisha is part of Middle Eastern culture so we don’t want to ban it, but we need stricter criteria."